The present invention relates to garment hangers capable of supporting a wide variety of garment types and for positively retaining a supported garment.
In addition to the conventional use of hangers for conveniently and attractively displaying garments in retail establishments, the clothing industry has recognized that significant advantages may be attained by placing a garment on a hanger at the point of manufacture and then shipping the hung garment to the stores together with the hanger. The use of so-called ship-on hangers has been found to be of particular advantage to the retail merchant whose employee labor costs are reduced by reason of minimized garment handling or manipulation which further results in a reduction of inadvertent soiling of garments prior to display and sale.
Typically, the garments are shipped unsecured to the accompanying hangers and there is a tendency, in the normal jostling and the like associated with shipping, for the garments to become separated or detached from the hangers associated therewith. This is particularly problematical where the garments are manufactured of silk or similarly thin or flimsy material which has a decided tendency to slide off conventional hangers. Separation of the garment from its hanger during shipping often results in severe wrinkling or deformation of the garment, thus substantially obviating the economic advantages of utilizing ship-on hangers, while such an occurrence at the retail establishment may result in severe soiling or damage to the garment rendering the same unsaleable should the garment fall to the floor and be trampled underfoot.
The hanger art suggests a number of hanger constructions which include some type of garment retaining or clamping means thereon. Of course, it should be recognized that inasmuch as these hangers are generally intended to be shipped with the garment from the manufacturer to the retailer, manufacturing costs of the hangers must be carefully considered. Hanger costs of the garment manufacturer will be passed on to the retailer and ultimately to the consumer, and simplicity of hanger design and fabrication are therefore essential from a practical standpoint.
As a consequence, garment-retaining hangers wherein non-integrally formed clamps comprising a number of individual component parts pivotally or otherwise secured to the hanger body are often too costly in manufacture and assembly for large-scale use with moderately-priced garments. U.S. Pat. No. 3,140,024 to Burns et al is typical of this art.
Other known hanger designs, wherein the clamps are integrally formed or molded with the hanger body, are generally constructed so that the clamps are biased normally closed. Manipulation of both hanger and garments can become understandably difficult during garment insertion for retention in the clamps during which the clamps must be manually held and maintained in an open position while a portion of the garment is inserted. In addition, since the same material flexibility that commonly enables manual movement of the integral clamps from their closed to open positions for garment insertion permits unintended opening or release of the clamps under the external jostling forces to which the garments are subjected during shipping, positive clamped retention of the garment is not assured unless auxiliary loading members or elements are used in conjunction with the clamps. This type of hanger construction is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,209,966 to Wach.
It is, therefore, the desideratum of the present invention to provide a unitary hanger construction including integral garment retaining means which are biased in a normally open position and which latch closed to provide for positive retention and prevent unintended release of a garment held thereby.
It is, further, an object of the present invention to provide a garment-retaining hanger wherein an integral retaining means is recessed into the shoulders of the hanger so that when the retaining means are closed the hanger shoulders conform to the shoulder line of a garment for conventionally supporting a garment as though the hanger were formed without the recessed retaining means.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a garment-retaining hanger wherein manually-induced resilient deformation of a portion of an integral garment retaining means is required for opening the same so as to prevent unintended disengagement or loss of the garment therefrom.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a unitary garment-retaining hanger of particularly simple construction which may be molded at advantageously low cost.